Some 900 farmers, close to half of them women, participated recently in 21 Pesticide Risk Reduction Farmer Trainings, implemented in 13 districts of 5 central-southern Lao provinces (Khammouane, Savannakhet, Salavane, Sekong and Attapeu). Farmers became aware of risk associate with local patterns of distribution and use of pesticides and learned about good practices for risk reduction. Rounding off the 3-day training courses, rural communities adopted a Community Action Plan for pesticide risk reduction.

Of particular concern remains the continued use of now banned agrochemicals, the herbicide Paraquat and the insecticide Methomyl. The farmer training and associated surveys and assessments were instrumental in better understanding distribution and use patterns for these chemicals as input to formulation of risk mitigation plans and follow up training to phase out use of banned and highly hazardous pesticides and adopt good IPM practices instead.

Ms. Lam Ngeun, a local vegetable farmer in Salalew village, Songkhone district, Savannakhet province, participated in the pesticide risk reduction training. “I learned about negative effects of pesticides for the 1st time in my life so my family decided to totally stop the use of pesticides in vegetable production”, she said.

Ms. Thongsouk, a local government facilitator, ran the 3-day training course and reflected back on the relevance of this training and why she remains committed to follow up with local communities on implementation of their risk reduction action plans.

“Farmers in Songkhon have been overusing pesticides for years and I want them to be aware of risks associated with use of the pesticides, reduce and, if possible, stop using them and adopt alternative IPM-based options for pest control in their farms”, she said.

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